I hate Heater thermostats

Pickupman66

New member
UGH!!! I hate Heater Thermostats!!!! you set it at 78, and it runs the water up to 84. thank god I have a good reliable controller for my tank.
 
Yeah, I refuse to use a heater without a controller, Lindsey! I just don't trust them. And Reef Keeper Lites are too cheap to not have one on your tank, even for just turning your lights on and off and turning your heater on. The first time your heater doesn't get stuck on it pays for itself at least once, sometimes 3 or 4 times in what you would lose in animals.

Brandon
 
Bill, no that was without the controller. I was testing the heaters for this weekend to see exactly where they set at with a digital thermometer. the one I have is not brand new and seems to be 10 degrees off! YIKES! glad it is on a controller when in my tank now.

I have a Medusa two stage temp controller that works REALLY well and is DEAD ON. it does both heat and cool circuits. it kicks the heat on .8 below the set point and off at .4 above it. kicks the cool on at .8 above set point and off at .4 below it.

The 84 was on RO/DI in a 5 gallon bucket. all tested with a handheld digital thermometer.

I hope they make LONG control cables for the controllers, cause when I win that one at the swap, it will have to go all the way out to the garage to control the heaters and such.
 
I run 2 x Heaters hooked to a controller.

One was probably enough to hold the temp because even though the lights were on both the heaters nobody was home. One must have failed earlier and then the second went. Caught it fairly early before any damage was done.

Point - if you run 2 for redundancy - check them weekly/monthly, esp in the Winter. Just because a status light appears to be working does not mean the heater(s) are...

Brett
 
...

I hope they make LONG control cables for the controllers, cause when I win that one at the swap, it will have to go all the way out to the garage to control the heaters and such.

When you win that RKL, let me know and I can do a nice, custom black cable for ya. :) I made some for my tank to run from one side of my office to my desk... not terribly long (30ft or so), but I have plenty more cable. :D To buy a cable that long is $$$$, but I can build one for about $0.05 (connectors... the cable was free... found extra at work) and 10 minutes. :)

Brandon
 
No kidding! thats cool. is it like cat 5 cable?

also, can they handle 1000w of heaters? also on another power block inside the house at 1000x of lights?
 
Yeah, its black Cat5e... I just put RJ12 ends on it instead of RJ45 and make SURE to wire it straight-through.

There are amp limits on the PC4s. Check out DA's website for more info on that. Two outlets are relays and the other two are solid state, so the amp ratings for each vary. I can't remember them off of the top of my head.

Brandon
 
Nope... RJ11/RJ12 is 2 or 3 pairs (in our case with the DA stuff, we need 3 pairs) and RJ45 is 4 pairs.

Brandon
 
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